Advanced Television

Pay-TV pilot on DTT in Spain

October 24, 2007

TV producer Mediapro, technology company SIDSA, electronic manufacturer SIEMENS-InOutTV, Consultancy firm SDIdigital and operador Telecom Castilla-La Mancha, along with the Town Council of Alcázar de San Juan, have launched a pay-TV pilot.

The six companies are offering a pay-per-view football match from the Italian Football League, as well as successful films from the producers Filmax and Manga Films.

It is one of the first pay-TV initiatives on DTT in Spain and forms part of the project called “DTT Digital Alcázar”. The pay-TV transmissions may be received through Siemens set-top-boxes that have the InOutTV service integrated, that's more than 500,000 units, representing 15 per cent of the total.

All DTT broadcasters interested in the initiative will have the opportunity to market their own events as the KeyFly system and the pay platform Bulevar Digital, already compatible with Siemens-InOut TV decoders, may co-exist with other technologies. KeyFly is a technology developed by the Spanish company SIDSA and is already being used by, among others, Al Jazeera Sports TV in its pay-per-view transmissions and by the Spanish TV group RTVE for its international transmissions.

To buy the event, the viewer must send a SMS message to a number that appears on the promotional spot of the programme on the tuned channel so that the system can allow that particular set-top-box to have access to the programme. With this technology, the companies plan to launch for the 2008-2009 season a wide selection of sports and premium pay-per-view events.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTT/DSO, Pay TV